First off, I've been continuing my 1 Second Everyday project. Here's an updated video that depicts my first two months (approximately) in Seattle:

After I made my initial post, I had a lot more time to reflect on this project and specifically, its constraints. I also had a fantastic, lengthy conversation with Cesar Kuriyama, who has helped to popularize this type of project.

Before I delve into some of the things we discussed, I should emphasize that there is no right or wrong way to do this. We are just at the beginning of an era when regular consumers having the capability to record and edit these types videos, so we're all just writing the rules as we go along.

Cesar and I discussed the following issues:

First, a reminder for those attempting to do the same project - It's best to record multiple "seconds" each day, as you may not know which one will mean the most to you until later. See more on this topic below.

Can it ever be longer than a second? - Limits encourage creativity. They force us to innovate and to avoid excess. Nonetheless, I wondered about the one second limit. Cesar saw changing it as a slippery slope: if you make some segments longer than one second, then you're "privileging" certain days, when each day should get its own "chance" to be a part of the project. Taken to the extreme, this could destroy the integrity of the project.

Personally, this doesn't bother me too much. I agree with limits, but one second occasionally seems arbitrarily short. One of the people that has done a similar project didn't impose a one second limit on her project and the resulting project was still great. If you watch the above video, you may notice that some of the segments are slightly longer than one second. Here's what I can promise: the overwhelmingly vast majority of segments will be one second long. Some of them will be slightly longer than one second. None of them will be as long or longer than two seconds.

Should you add music to the final product? - The video I just mentioned is scored to LCD Soundsystem, and gained popularity partially as a result of that. Cesar is against scoring these types of projects. From his blog:

Being able to listen to any particular moment is crucial to remembering it. The sound of my dad laughing... Tina Fey's Bossypants audio book while I'm driving through Tennessee... even the sound of slapping my cousin hello brings me back, haha :)Not to mention that music directs you towards a certain mood. And some of these seconds can switch from joy to sorrow, then back to joy in literally a heart beat.

Those are interesting thoughts, though I would argue that it is hard for anyone to really glean real emotion from one second clips. I come from the Kerouac school of writing: "Be in love with yr life." A piece like this *should* be a celebration. I should, for a few brief minutes, feel like you aren't just living your life, but that you are living the hell out of it. The right piece of music married to that kind of footage could do just that.

I haven't quite decided how I'm going to handle this yet, but it's likely I'll produce two separate videos: one with music and one without.

What about releasing the videos on a regular basis? - People who follow this blog know that I like to produce content. A lot of content. Photos, videos, audio: I get a thrill out of recording some slice of this world and presenting it for all to see on a regular basis. The idea of working my ass off for a year-long project and only being able to release a single video that might be seen by just a few hundred/thousand people seemed like a lot of work for not that much payoff.

Should I release monthly updates of the project? Maybe do a halfway point (6 months) video? There are disadvantages to this, of course: any sort of progress update would likely blunt the impact of a final video. Cesar chimed in on this topic with some of his thoughts:

Much like my thoughts on music, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer, just personal preference. Off the top of my head I could think of at least a couple of reason why I prefer yearly.- when I first came up with this idea, I was adamant about doing something that wouldn't feel like a chore. I think posting per month for the rest of my life would feel a bit more like perpetual homework. (although the App I'm currently developing will largely resolve this)

- Like you so eloquently explained in your blog post, I often keep several seconds to represent a particular day. I've found that I often need time to reflect on what ends up being the second that I want to remember forever. Example: In my video, you'll see me playing Settler's of Catan a bunch. The first time you see my play that board game is actually the first time I was taught how to play by a friend's husband. He's explaining the rules in it. I remember that was the day I biked all over the Ohio State campus. And I had recorded a second there. I'd always wanted to check out that campus since I was in High School. I thought it was pretty obvious that would be my second of the day. In the months that followed, Catan became a HUGE part of the life of my friends and I. We love getting together to play the crap out of it. Because I didn't post my compilation online until the end of my first year, I was able to change my mind and switch the second for that day. Learning how to play that game became a pretty significant event in my life. Obviously unbeknownst to me at the time. This ended up being the case for a considerable amount of seconds. It wasn't until months later that I realized certain events became truly significant.

- a short reason. Much like yourself, I tend to post a couple of things online every day. Sometimes its a cool online nugget, and sometimes it's something personal. I think demanding the attention of my friends once a year to get a glimpse of my life is much more absorbable than requesting 30 seconds of their attention monthly.- I guess one of the things I'm getting at is... there's a lot you can get away with if you wait a long time before posting... another example is the 2 horrible months when my sister in law was in the hospital. I was always petrified recording those moments. I wasn't even on facebook during that span of time. I can't imagine posting something like that while it was still happening. I was so scared my family would hate me for putting all that in a video. The night before my flight to TED I shared the video with my Sister in Law, her mom, & my mom... I thought: "well... if they're not comfortable with me sharing this on the stage at TED and online... I'll try to explain my reasonings... but if that fails... then I'll just have to cut the video short because there's no way I would do this without my families approval". Luckily they loved it. It worked exactly as I intended it... a reflection of how bad things were, and how grateful we should be that we've moved on to better days.- There was something exceptionally magical about how friends in my "seconds" reacted when they saw themselves in the compilation of my first year... most didn't know they would be in it. For some weird reason, they felt a lot closer to me. They were often happy that I decided that they were a meaningful part of my life. I don't believe this would have the same effect if we had shared a particular moment together, & I was posting it just a month later.

As a point of fact, I still think it's possible to post monthly compilations, then switch out a "second" or two when it comes time to create the year-end project. I haven't decided how I'm going to proceed, but it's likely that this will be the last time you see a cumulative progress update on this project (at least until maybe I'm six months into it).
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That's all for now. Thanks again to Cesar for his guidance. Hope you enjoy the video.

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comments :: More Thoughts on 1 Second Everyday

I'm glad you posted this. Since your last post on the topic I started my own and have accumulated nearly 30 days (I'd would love to hear your thoughts on it at some point), and I have been wrestling with the exact points you have covered here. I personally like the music version because being a film-lover, it feels more cinematic, and there's no reason not to keep the diegetic sound underneath whenever relevant.

Also, about the one-second limit, this I never considered breaking it until I saw the hey_rabbit 2011 video, and like you said - it doesn't diminish it at all. But I decided against it purely from an technical organizational and editing perspective. It's much easier to handle clips that are all the same length, especially when considering the next point..

I don't know if you've done this, but on a few occasions, I have been splicing audio and video from different parts of the source footage into the one second. Sometimes the best shot doesn't line up the best environmental audio and "cheating" it a bit can more accurately represent the moment.

Another thing that I wanted to mention is that I assumed that looking back on the finished project would let me analyze how I have spent my year, but in fact, that actual act of doing it has already made a difference. It makes me do more and value my time more, I can FEEL myself not having a particularly interesting one-second for that day as it's happening. It lead me to a minor epiphany:

Talking yourself into things is usually more fulfilling than talking yourself out of things.

@Daanish Re: "I assumed that looking back on the finished project would let me analyze how I have spent my year, but in fact, that actual act of doing it has already made a difference. It makes me do more and value my time more, I can FEEL myself not having a particularly interesting one-second for that day as it's happening." This is EXACTLY why I quickly decided to do this for the rest of my life when I started this project last year. And why I'm making an App that will make it extremely easy for anyone with a SmartPhone to do it as well. I genuinely believe the benefits are endless.

I love it! It really imparts the fleeting speed and unique flavor each passing day. Plus, that handsome devil in the last frame! Whoo!

I'm currently without a smartphone, but I'm due for an upgrade. Once I join the ranks of the perpetually video-enabled, I think I'll hop right on this train. Thanks for introducing me to this lovely idea!

This blog chronicles my journey into the world of photography, videography, and music. It also serves as my repository for random thoughts about film, technology, television, culture, journalism, and new media.

You can always reach me at davechen(AT)davechen(DOT)net.

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